Father of four murdered in his SE Houston driveway

Family members came together Sunday to remember 45-year-old John Steven Martinez, who was murdered in his driveway Saturday night

October 14, 2012 8:20:12 PM PDT

Pooja Lodhia

HOUSTON --

Houston police are searching for the suspects they say robbed and then killed a father of four in his own driveway this weekend.

It happened around 10pm on Ashburn near Santa Fe in southeast Houston.

Family members were just feet away inside their house. They heard the gunshot, but they never guessed it was directed at their father.

Family members came together Sunday to remember 45-year-old John Steven Martinez.

"It's hard to put it in words. You just have so much anger," the victim's sister, Mary Rodriguez, said. "I don't understand how they could take somebody's life over a wallet. How they could act so selfishly?"

Police say Martinez was returning home after visiting relatives in Pasadena when he was ambushed.

"It looks like some suspects followed him home and confronted him in his driveway," HPD Homicide Investigator Todd Miller said. "There was an altercation that took place and he was shot and killed in his driveway."

You can still see where Martinez was shot as he was trying to enter his home. When his family came outside, he was bleeding in the driveway. The blood is now covered by bleach.

"He came to this step here, and he collapsed and his son tried to resuscitate him. He called 911," Rodriguez said.

An ambulance arrived, but Martinez died on the way to the hospital.

The suspects got away.

"The people that did it should be ashamed of themselves because they destroyed a family," Rodriguez said. "But they didn't destroy a spirit."

Investigators said they are interviewing multiple witnesses who saw the suspects flee the scene. No suspect descriptions have been released.

If you have any information on this crime, you're asked to call Houston police or Crime Stoppers.